Apple’s releases iOS 10.1 with Portrait Mode

Apple on Monday released iOS 10.1 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The new update marks the end of an abnormally long beta period for a relatively minor update, but there was a good reason Apple went through five different developer beta versions of its latest mobile software build. The star feature, Portrait Mode for the iPhone 7 Plus, had to be thoroughly tested to ensure that it was ready for primetime. And as we saw on Monday in samples captured by a professional portrait photographer, it is definitely ready for primetime.

Portrait Mode is a new feature enabled by the dual cameras on the back of the iPhone 7 Plus. By combining the main 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with a secondary telephoto lens, the device is able to add a bokeh effect behind the subject of a photo that mimics the background blurring you would see in a portrait captured by a DSLR camera. The results are stunning.

iOS 10.1 also includes a number of other new features as well as bug fixes and refinements that impact all devices, not just the iPhone 7 Plus. The update is available immediately as an over the air (OTA) update or as a download that can be installed by connecting your iOS devices to a computer using iTunes.